As Grand Turk works through its COVID-19 policies related to cruise ships, Carnival Cruise Line has decided to avoid the port of call for the time being.
Carnival Cruise Ships Stay Away From Grand Turk
As there is a growing coronavirus concern across the Caribbean and beyond cruise ports are working on policies to protect their citizens. This has a knock-on effect on cruises and multiple cruise ships have already been denied from calling at ports including Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Grand Turk, Tortola, and St. Lucia.
At the moment we know that three Carnival cruise ships have stopped calling to the port. This comes after the Carnival Magic was not allowed to disembark guests during its visit on March 6, which didn’t go down too well with the cruise line as posted here.
Well, it now seems the Carnival Magic has canceled its scheduled call to Grand Turk on the following voyage, which departs Fort Lauderdale on March 8 (today). In a letter that was sent to guests booked for the next sailing, it stated: “Officials in Grand Turk continue to work through their policies with regards to cruise ship visits, and we are increasingly doubtful about our ability to make our call on Wednesday.”
As a result, Grand Turk has been moved from the 7-day Caribbean itinerary and replaced with a call in Nassau, Bahamas on Monday. Any pre-booked shore excursions through Carnival for Grand Turk are being automatically refunded to the Sail & Sign account.
Carnival Cruise Line sent Cruise Hive the following statement:
While Carnival Cruise Line has elevated our screening and onboard protocols, we remain uncertain about Grand Turk policies pertaining to cruise ship visits.
Consequently, we have decided to cancel the three calls at the island that were scheduled this week and calls for Carnival Magic, Carnival Horizon and Carnival Breeze are being replaced by a visit to Nassau.
We are continuing our dialogue with Grand Turk officials and hope to have a resolution soon.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our guests and appreciate their continued patience and understanding. Our onboard teams are dedicated to delivering a great vacation.
The same goes for the Carnival Breeze which is currently on a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise out of Port Canaveral. The ship had a call in Grand Turk set for March 12 but this has also now been cancelled. Carnival Horizon’s call on March 9 has also been cancelled. All calls have been replaced with Nassau instead.
Also Read: Debarkation on Newest Carnival Cruise Ship Halted for COVID-19 Test
At the moment fears of COVID-19 are hitting the cruise industry hard and in response, cruise fares are super low, a new plan after a meeting with the government is being worked on to keep guest and crew even safer and a new cancellation policy is in place to provide confidence to those booking a cruise during this worrying time.
Thousands of passengers on the U.S. west coast have been impacted with Grand Princess dealing with 21 cases of COVID-19 off San Francisco, Carnival Panorama being delayed at the Port of Long Beach yesterday and Royal Princess being forced to cancel its voyage due to coronavirus tests at the Port of Los Angeles.
At the moment there are more than 105,000 cases of the deadly virus around the world with 500 of those in the United States. Over 3,500 people have died including cruise ship passengers.
